Joseph - Part 1

Q: What does the Bible say about God's particular love?

The Bible illustrates God's particular love through examples like Jacob's love for Rachel and Joseph, exemplifying how God loves His people in Christ. The Bible describes God's love as particular and specific, particularly through the relationship depicted in Genesis between Jacob and Rachel. Jacob's love for Rachel, and subsequently for their son Joseph, serves as a profound illustration of how God the Father loves His Son and His chosen people. Just as Jacob chose to love Rachel uniquely, God the Father has a special love for His Son and those He has elected in Him. Ephesians 1 emphasizes that believers are accepted in the Beloved, showing the depth of God's specific love for His people. The relationship is evident—God's love is particular, purposeful, and reflecting His commitment to His chosen bride, symbolizing the intimate relationship required between Christ and the church.

Q: How do we know that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament?

Joseph's life provides a typological reflection of Christ, showcasing how events in the Old Testament prefigure the New Testament revelation. The life of Joseph serves as a striking typological representation of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, demonstrating how the narrative foreshadows the Messiah's coming. Events such as Joseph being sold into slavery for silver and falsely accused reflect Christ's own betrayal and suffering at the hands of His own people. Joseph’s experiences of being rejected, brought low, and ultimately rising to power mirror Christ’s humiliation and exaltation. This typology is reinforced within the context of Scripture, as various events throughout Joseph's life align with prophecies and characteristics of Jesus, indicating that He is indeed the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

Q: Why is the concept of election important for Christians?

The concept of election is vital for Christians as it affirms God's sovereign grace and personal commitment to His chosen people. Election is a foundational truth in the Christian faith that underscores God’s sovereign grace and His unfailing commitment to His chosen ones. In the narrative of Joseph, we witness God’s providential hand at work, showing that He selects individuals for His purposes and plans, exemplifying grace that is not dependent on human merit. This truth brings great comfort to believers, providing assurance that our salvation is rooted not in our decisions but in God's eternal love. The concept of election cultivates humility, gratitude, and deep assurance in the hearts of believers, affirming that we are loved and accepted despite our unworthiness. Scripture highlights this theme in Ephesians 1, where it articulates that believers are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, emphasizing God's initiative and love.

Turn with me to Genesis 35. Genesis 35. Last Sunday morning, we saw that 11 sons were born to Jacob. by four different women. Four different women bore 11 sons to Jacob. Out of those four women, Jacob truly loved one of them. One of them. Jacob's love was particular.

And our love is particular. And God's love is particular. It's particular. God the Father's love is particular to His Son. The Son of His love. He loves His people in His Son. He chose His people in his son, in his son. The father's love is particular and God the son's love is particular.

He specifically loves his particular bride. When we talk about election and elect and God chose, we're talking about a bride. Every married couple here right now did the same thing. The same thing. Our Lord Jesus Christ loves particular bride. The bride that his father chose in him and gave to him and we can see both of these loves. The love of the son toward his bride and the love of the father toward his son in the relationship of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob and Rachel. Jacob had a special particular love for Rachel and that's a picture of Christ and his bride.

And Jacob had a special particular love for the son born to him through Rachel as a picture of the father toward Christ. And that physical son that was born to Jacob through Rachel was Joseph. Joseph of all the sons that were born to Jacob, Joseph was the one that truly pictured Christ. As you look at the 12 sons of Jacob in their own time, in their own way, they do all picture Christ, but Joseph is the one that truly pictured Christ. Joseph was the one that Jacob said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well-placed. Well, we made it to Genesis 32 last week, where at that moment, Jacob had 11 sons. But here in Genesis 35, Jacob has one more son born to him by Rachel. This would make his 12th son. And in the process of giving birth to this son, Rachel died.

Look with me at Genesis 35 verse 16. And they journeyed from Bethel and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. They were almost there. And Rachel travailed and she had hard labor. And it came to pass when she was in hard labor that the midwife said unto her, fear not, thou shalt have this son also. Now if you have a center margin in your Bible, you'll see that thou shalt have this son also. There's a reference back to Genesis 30 verse 24. Turn back over there to Genesis 30. Genesis 30, look at verse 22.

It says, And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bare a son and said, God hath taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph and said, The Lord shall add to me another son. She knew that because God gave her that son, God would give her another son. And again, what a picture of Christ that is.

Romans 8 says, For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 1 John 3 says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. How? How could we be called the sons of God?

Here's the answer. Ephesians 1 says, He made us accepted in the Beloved. In the Beloved. Because of God's well-beloved Son, We were made to be sons only because of him. Verse 24 says she called his name Joseph. That means adding. And that's what Christ did by the sacrifice of himself, he added, he adopted. Members, brothers and sisters into his kingdom, into his home, into God's family.

Verse 24, she called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me another son. And again, the center margin sends you back to chapter 35, verse 17 right there. So go back over to chapter 35. Verse 16, And they journeyed from Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. And Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not, thou shalt have this son also.

And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, for she died, that she called his name Benoni. That means the son of my sorrow. But his father called him Benjamin. That means the son of the right hand. And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath which is Bethlehem. Bethlehem. Benjamin is a picture of Christ too. He was born in Bethlehem.

They made it almost, they were almost in Ephrath. They were right there at it, almost in Ephrath. In Ruth chapter one, you know the story of Ruth, it begins with a man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi. They were Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. Those two towns were just right there, you know, like Dallas, Fort Worth. She made it almost to Ephrath and she was in Bethlehem.

Benjamin was born in Bethlehem. So Joseph, he's a picture of Christ. Benjamin was a picture of Christ. Rachel was a picture of Christ and the fact that she died giving life to him, giving birth to him. Verse 19, and Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. So Jacob now has 12 sons. I wanted you to see how this last son came.

If you turn with me to chapter 37. Genesis 37. This is where the story of Joseph begins. And this is a long story. 14 chapters cover the life of Joseph. If we were physically going through Genesis, we would be here for about six months. But we're not going through Genesis, we're going through the Old Testament stories.

And it's been my desire to try to get stories into one message. And I haven't been able to do that with all of them. Jacob and Esau was three. It's gonna take a few messages to get through this, but I'm just gonna hit the high spots because the point is I want us to have a bird's eye view of the picture of Christ.

I want us to see the big, beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in Joseph. And that picture really starts right here. If you look at chapter 37 verse 1, it says, And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan.

These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph being 17 years old, he was 17 years old. He was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. They each had two sons, so he was with four of his brothers. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report."

Now, we know that Joseph was a sinful human being. just like every other man on this earth. But as a picture of Christ, the sin that they were committing, he had no part in it. He did not know their sin. The story of Joseph begins with him seeing the sin of his brethren. And that's where the story of Christ redeeming his brethren begins. Their sin was known in his eyes.

And in the father's eyes, the end of verse two says, Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Verse three, now Israel or Jacob loved Joseph more than all his children. The father loves the son. The father loveth the son. Verse three, Israel loved Jacob more than all his children. because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.

With Christ, the glory and the honor of the father has been laid on him. It has been declared to be so. It's all been laid on him. And because of that, the sinful jealousy of all creation says, I will not have that man reign over me. Our Lord came unto his own and his own received him not. Verse 5 says, And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And it's because this was the dream.

He said he dreamed that they were all binding sheaves, either wheat or corn, they were binding sheaves, and his sheaf stood upright. And he told his brothers, all your sheaves stood around my sheaf and bowed down to it. Verse 8, And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?

And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And that's what we just said concerning Christ and his sinful people by nature, all of us said all men and women naturally say we will not have him. You're not going to reign over me. Not your will, mine be done.

Verse nine, and he dreamed yet another dream and told it his brethren and said, behold, I have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and moon and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. The sun, the moon, and 11 stars bowed down to me. And he told it to his father and to his brethren.

And his father rebuked him, Jacob rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth? Jacob said, You think everyone and everything is going to bow down to you? You're saying every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess.

As a picture of Christ, yes. Yes. Verse 11, and his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying. That word observed means he gave heed to the saying and protected the saying. Kept it in his heart. And do you know that Hebrews 1 verse 8 says, even God the Father said to God the Son, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom.

Well, after this, the 10 older brothers, they went to feed their father's flock in a town called Shechem. And Jacob sent Joseph to go check on them to see how they were doing. And if you look at verse 18, it says, when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. They all immediately started conspiring. How can we kill him? And that's exactly what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ. His brethren, his kinsmen after the flesh, the Jews, they wanted one thing for him, crucify him. Crucify him.

Verse 21, and Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness. Our Lord said in Psalm 40, that's what he was cast into, an horrible pit, a horrible pit, the pit of the sin of his people, the pit of death, the pit of hell. Verse 23, it came to pass when Joseph was coming to his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him.

That's what happened to Christ. They stripped him of his clothes. And because he was the substitute for his people standing in the very place of his people, God the Father stripped him of everything else. Everything else, his communion, His standing, the scripture says his judgment, his judgment was taken away. His life.

Well, with Joseph in the pit, they decided let's not kill him and have blood on our hands because he is our brethren. They said, let's just sell him to somebody else and let them deal with him. And that's exactly what the Jews said concerning Christ. Pilate said to the Jews, you deal with him. And they said, no, we don't want to do that. We want you to do it. We want him to be crucified by the Romans.

Verse 28 says, then there passed by Midianites, merchant men, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. Our Lord was sold for just a few pieces more of silver. Verse 31, and they took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood, and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, this have we found.

Know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. And he knew it and said, it is my son's coat. An evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him.

And the Midianites sold Joseph into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard." Our Lord was sold into the bondage of sin for the sake of His people. All right, now turn with me to chapter 39. Verse 1 says, and Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Our Lord was brought down. He was humbled.

Verse 2 says, and the Lord was with Joseph. God was in Christ, reconciling the world of his sinful brethren to himself. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. In Isaiah 42, God the Father said concerning Christ, behold my servant. His work is before him and he shall not fail.

Isaiah 53 10 said, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. The next few verses here go on to say that Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph. Day by day, it says. Not just once, but day by day, but he would not give in He would not succumb to her seduction. Our Lord was tempted like as we are. Yet without sin. This infuriated Potiphar's wife, so she lied on Joseph to Potiphar. And she said that Joseph tried to seduce her. Our Lord was falsely lied on. wrongly accused.

He was convicted and he was judged for sins that not only did he not commit, but were committed against him. The very things that were committed against him, that's what he was accused of. Verse 19, chapter 39, verse 19, it says, And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's master took him, and put him in the prison, A place where the king's prisoners were bound and he was there in the prison. Our Lord Jesus Christ was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. Verse 21 says, but.

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy. and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison. And whatsoever they did there, Joseph was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand. Because the Lord was with him. And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Anybody see the gospel in that? All the prisoners, Joseph ended up down, down, down, down. His brothers put him in a pit. Could it be any worse? They sold him into slavery. Could it be any worse? They threw him into prison. Down, down, down.

And then the Lord was with him. All the prisoners that were in that prison, all of them, all the prisoners. Now, they're not the only ones who were in the town, in Egypt. But all the prisoners that were in that prison were in the hands of Joseph. placed in the hands. They were all in the care and the authority of Joseph. And is that not the case for all of the captivity? All the captivity who Christ has been made the captain over. Verse 22, the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison.

And whatsoever they did there, He was the doer of it. He was the accomplisher of it. He was the seer to it. Their lives were in His hands. Their lives were in His hands. Whatever they needed, it was in Joseph's hand. And is that not our Lord Jesus Christ? Not only are the lives of His people in His hand, Not only is he the accomplisher of everything concerning his people, but the people that he came to be the doer of all these things for was prisoners. Spiritual prisoners bound and captive to sin. That's what we are. That is what we are. We are so bound and captive to sin. Bound and captive to Satan. Bound and captive to death. Bound and captive to hell.

That's who he said he came to set free. I'm going to close this by reading from Isaiah 61. Turn with me over to Isaiah 61. Luke chapter 4 tells us that this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. The heading at the top of my page says this is the office of Christ. Isaiah 61 verse 1, he says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

That's the glorious news of God's providence in providing his people a deliverer. Deliver them from going down to the pit. I found a ransom. I found one who was willing to enter into that pit with them. in order to deliver them out. And he's going to prosper in that deliverance. He's going to prosper in that deliverance, and Christ did. We're going to see that in Joseph. He prospered. The Lord made him to prosper to the highest place of prosperity. And with that, so did his brethren. As he prospered, so did his brethren. All right, we're going to stop there. And Lord willing, we'll pick it up next Sunday. You're dismissed.

Joseph - Part 1

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's particular love?

How do we know that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament?

Why is the concept of election important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Gabe Stalnaker

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Joseph - Part 1

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's particular love?

How do we know that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament?

Why is the concept of election important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Gabe Stalnaker

Comments

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